


Buttercups

by Daylily (joyusScarecrow)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/F, Porn Later, i'm trying to give rosemary a pretentious fic sorry if it's not up to scratch, manic pixie dream girl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 08:55:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyusScarecrow/pseuds/Daylily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Any of various herbs of the genus Ranunculus, chiefly native to temperate and cold regions. The buttercup is poisonous, common as a garden weed and in grassland. Most identifiable by its bright yellow cup-shaped flowers, traditionally a buttercup symbolizes radiant charm or attraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buttercups

On her first day of knowing the most important person to ever enter her life, Kanaya remembered getting up to skies of gray and a forecast too cold for it to be may.

The weather, coupled with a rude interruption of her workplace concentration, put her in a sour mood late that afternoon. Eridan was well aware that he was not supposed to socialize with her, due to her history of trying to shoo him away, and her neat Ray’s Home and Garden apron. However, when what he called a social emergency struck, it didn’t matter if she was on the clock. He would have said his preying on her courtesy and his spearing of her insight were totally justified.

Kanaya’s soft heart begrudgingly obliged him, as they both knew it would.

“…thinks it’s MY fault, when obviously HE was behind the instigation of the whole fuckin’ problem, right?” Eridan grumbled.

“I have not the faintest idea of the events you are referring to, because you have not explained yourself very well.” Kanaya said curtly.

“I already told you and it isn’t my fault you feel the need to pretend to ignore the majority of what I’m sayin’, just give me the answer already and then me and my bad manners will get ourselves outta those frillass rubbish glass doors.”

“I am going to ignore the implications behind your insult to the establishment at which I work and the doors thereof. All I caught was that you were blaming Sollux for something and I cannot tell whether you are blowing things out of proportion.” Kanaya began to load several pots of seedling tomatoes onto a cart as she said this.

“You forgot how you’re also obligated to be the decent friend you are and help me out of this.”

“My, should I be flattered?”

“I guess whatever but the point is both Fef and Sol are more pissed at me than usual and I’ll have to stay with Kar in his shitty apartment on like a futon or even the floor if I can’t get you to straighten things out.” He sounded more upset about the potential sleeping arrangements than anything.

Except Kanaya knew that wasn’t the case, which she told herself was the only reason to help.

“God forbid you solve your own problems. I am in shock at the prospect of you sleeping on a futon or a floor.”

“Exactly! If I had anyone better to go to, I would, trust me.”

“You are not exactly helping your case here.” She was just barely mature enough to avoid rolling her eyes; instead she rolled the cart past a row of saplings.

“Oh come on you don’t have the ability to resist with incessant meddlin’ so you may as well do it when someone will appreciate it.” He pressed.

She sighed and stopped the cart outside the warehouse. “What exactly is going on?”

He adjusted his admittedly flattering full-length coat before he nervously answered. “Well okay you know how Fef is always goin’ on about poor livin’ conditions in the ocean and pollution and shit? And how aquarium life is significantly better if you know half a flying piss fuck of what you’re actually doing-”

“I hope this is not going where I think this is.”

“-So one day we were just hangin’ around our beach house, and I pointed out that some fartcunt dropped their whole fuckin’ load of blasphemous litter on the beach an’ Sol said that if I was gonna be so adamant about trash maybe I should do some shit about it-“

“So let me guess you either burned the beach or you kidnapped all of the sea life.”

“Look it took me three days to build a decent nurse shark trap and find a legitimate set of buyers to line up but no apparently it’s ILLEGAL to do such a thing. They called it like poaching or something and I had to bail myself out of a ludicrous imprisonment. I mean seriously have you ever heard of anything more fucking stupid?” He looked up at her with a pout.

“So your reasoning is that because of at least decent intentions and the passive aggressive remark of your boyfriend your actions were completely justified. Did the sharks at least make it out alive?”

He pursed his lips. “It didn’t catch any nurse sharks.” When she just stared at him wordlessly, he continued; “I was actually pretty fuckin’ stupid to try and reel those in because they’re rare this far north. So it was more like a buncha stupid small fish that got jostled to death – I was unprepared don’t give me that fuckin’ look!”

She shook her head.

“I thought that you of all people might actually understand but apparently my hope got out of my control and ran rampant through my personal kingdom.” He sniffed.

“Go away for a moment I need to think about how exactly to reprimand you and possibly come up with a way for you to make up for your own stupidity so that you will be on speaking terms with Feferi especially.” She turned away from him and pushed the warehouse door open, letting it swing shut behind her.

Inside it smelled like potting soil, sawdust and cement. She pushed the cart into a corner under a florescent growth light, uncaring and so unlike the sun, which had apparently taken its leave for a while. The cold confines of the cement, while less desirable, weren’t nearly as biting as the colder outdoors brought on by late frost that would inevitably choke out and shrivel to death something meant to grow and bare its broad leaves to the sky.

Kanaya didn’t mind the clouds; she enjoyed them, actually, so long as there was balance to the sun. She felt the sun was robbed by clouds when they obscured it. The injustice came in when something so great was blocked out by something that should have been so trivial. The purity and light would have warmed and lit the earth if not for the dominating glare of overcast. She certainly was not in favor of traditional monarchy, though Kanaya believed that the divine right to rule existed solely in the sun.

In case you haven’t noticed, that metaphor will be important later, so you may want to pay attention to it.

Kanaya made sure the lumber hadn’t been made a mess of the way her co-workers tended to do, and then wandered back to the courtyard where Eridan had originally tracked down and bothered her, to see if she could find him and advise him.

Kanaya spotted his sweeping purple coat near a display of flowers. She suspected that he was busy glaring at a bunch of peonies.

She approached him and rather than looking at him while she spoke, she shifted through some potted protea, arranging them to look as buyable as possible. The most promising buds were placed at eye-level, and she color-coordinated everything else. “I am sure that you have heard something along these lines at least twice before I say it but did it ever occur to you that there are much fewer legal implications behind picking up trash than murdering a small school of probably endangered fish? If you were so concerned about Pacific sea life you would probably have attempted to improve their environment rather than to remove them entirely from it, which I think would be much of her concern.”

“Have we spoken before?” A distinctly feminine, not at all like Eridan voice startled you. When you looked over to the source, your small dread was confirmed as solid. An attractive woman with a polite smile, a tray of buttercups, and the exact same coat as Eridan was definitely on the receiving end of her tangent on marine irresponsibility. Her face flushed with embarrassment.

“No, apparently. Well, now in the future we have. Because this is an occurrence of speaking.” Kanaya nervously put the plant she was holding back on the shelf.

Much to Kanaya’s surprise, however, the woman’s smile widened. “I must apologize, although you were not referring to this subject in particular specifically, the mention of time travel has a tendency to baffle me beyond the extent of reasonable thought. Perhaps this is because of an aversion to the idea of existence outside of the recognizable plane which life as I know it consists of.”

“It is not that difficult to understand, abstractly. If you can avoid the complications you just mentioned then understanding it will become significantly easier.” Kanaya supplied.

The woman tilted her head. “Perhaps. I may have to attempt at some point to allow a mediocre work of science fiction to better explain it to me. With an open mind, this shortfall in my trivial understanding of theoretical concepts may be remedied through the power of layman’s terms.”

Kanaya nodded. “Honestly there is too much mediocre science fiction in this world to be overlooked. I do not see how you could have avoided learning before now.”

“It was a combination of privilege and vague distaste for the genre.” The woman winked. “It might be beneficial for me to metaphorically broaden my horizons, as the opinion and advice of an impressive stranger has given me the motivation to do so, unless that is too juvenile a reason.”

“Not at all. I think I will have to be flattered.”

“That was the intention. Could you lead me to the register?”

“Of course.”

If not for the fact that she could have been fired or at least frowned heavily at, Kanaya may have offered the woman her arm, to emphasize the blatant flirting that she was almost certain both parties involved were aware of. Well, those reasons, and the woman was still carrying the packed tray of buttercups, which Kanaya just now realized she should have tried to help the attractive stranger with, though it was too late once they were walking.

“You should repeat what you said on the subject of marine life to whoever was meant to receive it, as it seems the moral and practical questionability of their actions has not yet gotten through to them,” The woman said as they walked.

“I intend to. He is neither morally stable nor practical, actually, so I doubt that either of those things will get through to him very well.” Kanaya stopped a few feet from the register line, and the woman stopped as well. She cleared her throat. “Thank you for your patience.”

“Your help was appreciated.” The woman curtsied, and Kanaya was suddenly unsure if she was being mocked.

“Thank you for shopping here, have a nice day.” Kanaya dove back into her business persona at that, because she couldn’t afford to feel that she was losing ground against a witty and beautiful woman who was probably also queer.

“A pleasant evening to you, as well,” The woman nodded, and then turned to the register to take her place on the conveyor belt.

Kanaya walked a safe distance away, then glanced back. The woman was staring at her at that moment, so she of course caught Kanaya doing so, and raised an eyebrow. Kanaya held eye contact for a moment then hurriedly broke it.

Even after a significant amount of searching, Kanaya never did find Eridan at work again that day. So when she finally returned home, she decided it would probably be best to at least message Feferi as per warning, definitely not to defend anyone.

—grimAuxilatrix [GA] began pestering cuttlefishCulling [CC]—

GA: Hello  
GA: In The Event That Eridan Has Returned Home I Am Sure That You Know He Is Attempting To Blame Sollux For His Actions  
GA: Unless You Knew That Much Earlier  
GA: He May Also Play The Caring Dramatics Card On You  
CC: O)( my God I am so sorry t)(at )(e keeps bugging you wit)( )(is antics!!  
CC: )(e is stupid and you s)(ould not )(ave to deal wit)( )(im.  
GA: He Was Not Actually Too Much Trouble Today  
GA: He Simply Stormed Off Before I Could Scold Him  
GA: Which Now That I Think About It May Have Been A Strategic Move  
CC: )(e just wanted to complain. 38/  
GA: Yes Though That Is Not What I Mind  
GA: It Is That He Chooses To Do So While I Am Working  
GA: Although Today It Resulted In My Conversing With An Attractive Customer  
GA: I Never Did Get Her Name  
CC: 38) I guess t)(at mig)(t count as compensation!  
CC: But R—EALLY, you do not )(ave to put up wit)( )(im if )(e is a bot)(er!  
GA: I Cannot Seem To Help It  
GA: In The Sense That He Is One Of The Victims To My Apparent Meddling Habits  
GA: Of Which I Have Found No Evidence  
CC: )(a)(a, wow.  
GA: Do Not Worry I Am Not In Danger Of Stealing Away Anyone In Your Relationship  
CC: You could come join sometide thoug)(! T)(at would be fun!  
GA: I Am Flattered However No Thank You  
CC: )(-E)(-E, I t)(oug)(t you would say t)(at.

The conversation dwindled away after that, and Feferi said Eridan just got home, she would have to go yell at him for being an idiot.

Kanaya made herself tea and fell back onto her small couch and reflected to herself on the day’s events. It was only once in a very rare while that Kanaya met another woman who she suspected was of a similar sexual inclination to her, while just out and about. Typically her only access points to her potential dating pool were through friends, friends of friends, and gay bars. Unfortunately, all of those things were rather limited.

Kanaya was tired of poor romantic luck. Of a rut, so to speak, she blamed on this very limited access and a failed relationship that had ended nearly a year ago. She felt it was time for her own stereotypically perfect domestic relationship. She was an adult. She wanted to settle down with someone charming and witty and beautiful, much like the woman she met that day. Not necessarily that woman in particular, of course, but the idealized essence of her. If she was honest with herself, which was something she actually had trouble doing, then she would say that she was a little bit desperate.

Of course, this was probably a common problem, she decided eventually. There had to have been at least one other woman in her strip of population (dependent on the proximity of the coast and the more major cities) that had the same long term relationship goals as her, right? Who also of course was tasteful in interests and dress.

Kanaya Maryam wanted very much to have a stable, loving relationship that would last indefinitely. That wasn’t too much to ask for, she was sure.

How unfortunate for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry the text color codes didn't work! I'll try again when it's not the middle of the night.
> 
> Many thanks to a couple of good friends for beta reading.
> 
> If you want news on updates, then you will find them [here](http://iamnotaradiabot.tumblr.com/tagged/buttercupsfic), or simply in the tumblr tag [#buttercupsfic](http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/buttercupsfic)


End file.
